Essential oils: precautions for use
There are no contraindications or side effects for use through the diffuser.
Normally there are no problems even for use on the skin or in contact with the skin, as long as you do not overdo it with the quantity. However, there may be people with an allergy to some essential oil or one of its components, which could lead to local irritation. Some essential oils may have an abortive action and pregnant women should not use them as a precaution.
Warnings
If you use aromatherapy make sure you really use pure essential oils. It is easier to find synthetic essences than essential oils. Synthetic essences have no healing effects and are probably harmful. Unfortunately there is a great deal of confusion in this field.
We want to give an example to better understand what happens:
1 kg of essence (synthetic) of rose costs 10 euros wholesale, while 1 kg of damask rose essential oil costs, according to its origin, from 5, 000 to 10, 000 euros. That's why there are so many frauds in this field. Of course, the price difference is not always so obvious, but it is always remarkable.
Those who are not very experienced risk buying a synthetic essence instead of an essential oil and it is quite common to find essential oils diluted with synthetic essences. Even analyzes such as gas chromatography cannot establish with certainty whether an essential oil is pure or not. Sophisticators are good at getting around analysis. So in the end, only our nose and trust in the supplier remain to protect us from sophistication
Risk of intoxication
A group of essential oils, if administered at high doses, from 10 to 20 ml, can cause the onset of acute poisoning, even lethal, with symptoms that generally affect the neuromuscular system (spasms, convulsions, etc.) and some of the more important internal organs (liver, kidneys, lungs etc.). Different constituents of essential oils possess properties that always require controlled use in doses: phenols are more or less caustic and can cause renal irritation and damage to the mucous membranes of the digestive tract; some ketones are characterized by a marked neurotropism and by their tendency to accumulate in the body, because they are difficult to eliminate; terpenes are irritating to the skin and mucous membranes; some esters (anethole) are narcotic at very high doses. An idiosyncrasy to some essential oils may also occur with the appearance of allergic manifestations.
The symptoms of poisoning and the main toxicological observations relating to the most common essential oils are now reported.
- Anise, Badiana and Fennel (anethole): at high doses it causes muscle torpor, decreased respiratory rate, analgesia with a sense of euphoria. Occasionally, clonic seizures may also occur;
- Absinthe (tujone): at high doses it can cause damage to the nervous system with the appearance of tremor and insensitivity. Abortive. Thujone is a convulsive agent;
- Bergamot (bergaptene): may be the cause of skin hyperpigmentation phenomena (melanosis);
- Camphor: it is an CNS excitant At high doses it can cause convulsions;
- Cedar: at high doses it is abortive;
- Chenopodium (ascaridol): if it is absorbed, toxic events occur affecting the heart, the breath and the CNS;
- Carnation (eugenol): at high doses it is caustic of mucous membranes;
- Juniper: contraindicated in case of renal or testinal inflammation;
- Guaiaco: at high doses it can cause gastroenteritis and heavy menstruation;
- Mint (menthol): at high doses it is amazing;
- Nutmeg: at high doses (10-15 ml) it is amazing for the presence of phenylpropenic compounds (myristicin) structurally analogous to mescaline;
- Parsley (apiolo): at high doses it is toxic and abortive because it is very active on uterine musculature;
- Ruta (methylnonylketone): in high doses it can cause fatal poisoning. abortive;
- Sabina: it is vesicatory and causes vomiting, colic and diarrhea. It can be harmful to the kidneys. It is abortive because its terpenes act by congesting the uterus:
- Salvia (tujone): at high doses it causes convulsions;
- Mustard: at high doses it is caustic and can lead to suffocation by suffocation. Its internal administration is not recommended;
- Tansy (tujone): at high doses it is convulsive and abortive;
- Thuja (tujone): at high doses it can cause clonic spasms and seizure-type convulsions. Abortive due to its tropism towards the muscular fibers of the uterus;
- Turpentine: blistering.
Chronic toxicity
Prolonged administration of essential oils at high doses can induce chronic poisoning and tissue degeneration. Finally it should be pointed out the possibility that some subjects present a certain type of emotional and sentimental naturalism, today however quite widespread, which leads them to consider any substance deriving from nature to be harmless and beneficial. Certainly the molecules found in Nature are never foreign to the metabolism of life because living organisms, animals and plants, have common origins, among other things witnessed by a substantial biochemical homogeneity between individuals, even phylogenetically very distant. For example, the fundamental metabolic cycles are found unchanged in an amoeba like in a mammal. Glucose is, without doubt, one of the most common simple organic molecules both in the plant and animal kingdoms, and can be taken as a "natural" molecule par excellence. This does not mean, however, that when its concentration in the blood is no longer moderate by insulin, its excess leads to serious organic lesions (see diabetes). The fact, therefore, that essential oils are products of Nature does not subtract them from the general rule that every substance, even the most harmless, if administered to the body in large quantities can produce undesirable effects. In fact the main determining factor for the manifestation of the toxic action of a compound is its dose. It follows that even essential oils, if taken in too high doses, can damage vital functions and compromise the most delicate human biological mechanisms. This is why it is worthwhile to address, in a simplified manner, some aspects relating to the toxicity of essential oils.
